Joseph Martin Kraus (20/06/1756 - 15/12/1792), a Swedish composer of German origin, born in Miltenberg. He was a pupil of Vogler and studied at Mainz. German by birth and trained in Mannheim by Franz Xaver Richter, Joseph Martin Kraus is often referred to as the ‘Swedish Mozart’ both on the grounds of his undoubted musical genius and his employment at the brilliant court of Gustav III in Stockholm. Kraus’s career as a composer was relatively brief - probably little more than 15 years - but his mature works have a complexity expressive intensity which is quite unique. His death in 1792, like that of Mozart’s the previous year, must be accounted one of the great musical tragedies of the period.

Kraus' Requiem dates from 1775 and is a youthful work (he was 19 years old), composed at Erfurt before he moved to Stockholm where he gained what fame he has today. The work combines an inspired Sturm und Drang sensibility with snatches of Mozartian grace and adds gratefully to the Kraus catalogue.

A cantate in memory of Gustav III, king of Sweden (1746 - 1792). After Gustav's assassination, Kraus, as royal Kapellmeister, was commissioned at very short notice indeed to compose music for the solemnization of his funeral. Kraus wrote a purely instrumental work: a Symphonie Funèbre. For the funeral itself, a month later, on May 14 1792, his Funeral Cantate, to words by the king's personal secretary, the poet Carl Gustav Leopold (1756 - 1829).